Ever since Sarah Palin gave Barack Obamas experience as a community organizer a thorough mocking during her speech at the RNC convention the left has been up-in-arms over it. Community organizers were important, theyve told us. Dont you know that Jesus and Gandhi were community organizers too!

So, ok then. Lets look at Obamas track record as a community organizer. Has he done great things? Accomplished great feats?

Um, not so much

Back in June I posted on a Boston Globe story detailing Obamas something less-than-stellar record on low-income housing in the Chicago area which included shelling a lot of money for housing development out to people like convicted fraudster Tony Rezko and not a lot of lasting, affordable housing for the people of Chicago.

Antoin Tony Rezko, perhaps the most important fund-raiser for Obamas early political campaigns and a friend who helped the Obamas buy a home in 2005. Rezkos company used subsidies to rehabilitate more than 1,000 apartments, mostly in and around Obamas district, then refused to manage the units, leaving the buildings to decay to the point where many no longer were habitable

Okay my wife and I have a question. O’Bama mentioned yesterday on Stephie’s show that he worked with poor people who had asbestos in their homes. Our question is how did he work with them? Did he work to get the asbestos removed or did he work with trial lawyers to sue somebody over the asbestos?

ALL THE elements were present: the individual stories told by real people of their situations and hardships, the packed-to-the rafters crowd, the crowd's chanting of key phrases and names, the action on the spot of texting and phoning to show instant support and commitment to jump into the political battle, the rallying selections of music, the setting of the agenda by the power people.

The Democratic National Convention had all the elements of the perfectly organized event, Saul Alinsky style. Barack Obama's training in Chicago by the great community organizers is showing its effectiveness.

It is an amazingly powerful format, and the method of my late father always works to get the message out and get the supporters on board. When executed meticulously and thoughtfully, it is a powerful strategy for initiating change and making it really happen. Obama learned his lesson well.

I am proud to see that my father's model for organizing is being applied successfully beyond local community organizing to affect the Democratic campaign in 2008. It is a fine tribute to Saul Alinsky as we approach his 100th birthday.

From Rules for Radicals, Alinsky outlines his strategy in organizing, writing:

"There's another reason for working inside the system. Dostoevsky said that taking a new step is what people fear most. Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution."[2]

What if Barack Obamas most important radical connection has been hiding in plain sight all along? Obama has had an intimate and long-term association with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn), the largest radical group in America. If I told you Obama had close ties with MoveOn.org or Code Pink, youd know what I was talking about. Acorn is at least as radical as these better-known groups, arguably more so. Yet because Acorn works locally, in carefully selected urban areas, its national profile is lower. Acorn likes it that way. And so, Id wager, does Barack Obama.

"Ayers, now a tenured distinguished professor of education at UIC, works to educate teachers in socialist revolutionary ideology, urging that it be passed on to impressionable students.

One of Ayer's descriptions for a course called 'Improving Learning Environments' says prospective K-12 teachers need to 'be aware of the social and moral universe we inhabit and ... be a teacher capable of hope and struggle, outrage and action, teaching for social justice and liberation.

The Annenberg papers are quite extensive  132 boxes containing 947 file folders with 70 linear feet of material. They undoubtedly contain more surprises regarding Obama's relationship with Ayers, one of many relationships Obama has sought to hide.'..."

They're not really trying to compare what Obama did to the works of Jesus and Gandhi, are they? That would be sheer lunacy and only an idiot would draw such compa...liberal democrats...never mind. I understand now.

5
posted on 09/08/2008 10:30:15 AM PDT
by econjack
(Some people are as dumb as soup.)

I read that Obama just joined up with others who were already trying to get the asbestos out and they weren’t so happy that he was inferring that he had done this solo. And, I think the effort was only partially successful.

Any time anyone uses this phrase, our answer should be "As soon as you show me evidence that Barack Obama fed a crowd of 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish, then we can compare the two. Until then, please don't equate a radical leftist Chicago machine politician with the savior of mankind."

It's funny when you think about it. Jesus fed 5,000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Obama would have spent $5,000 to feed 7 people.

..Okay my wife and I have a question. OBama mentioned yesterday on Stephies show that he worked with poor people who had asbestos in their homes. Our question is how did he work with them? Did he work to get the asbestos removed or did he work with trial lawyers to sue somebody over the asbestos?

Anybody know or know how to find out?..

He talks about it in his first book. As I recall, they put pressure on the city ( . . . a hem . . the mayor . . . ). I’m not sure how much asbestos actually got removed. It’s possible they shut down the complex instead. Like I say, I don’t remember the details. But it is in the first Obama book . . .

Obama has a record he doesn’t want discussed. He is nothing but a media creation and I would love for McCain and Palin to go into more detail during the campaign highlighting just the lousy ‘community organizer’ he was.

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